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“You could stand to have some more meat on your bones. Besides, Iknow you like the coffee and biscotti. Isaw you sneaking both when you thought I wasn’t around. Oh, and while we’re talking about your baking, make sure you double your vanilla next batch. You’re almost there, but it needs just a bit more … oomph.” With her ghostly critique delivered, Anna smiled and took another bite of her own batch of biscotti.
“Well, thanks to your visits, Ifell asleep at my desk today and was let go. Terminated. No letters of reference, no severance, and no chance of finding anything better before I lose this place.”
The uncharacteristic gruffness of Mia’s voice did nothing to disguise the tears beginning to flow freely. Even in the dream realm, her shame burned white hot. Life had not turned out as she had envisioned as a young college student.
“Oh, poor dear, you should have had that second cup of coffee before work. Next time you fix it remember the lime.”
Anna’s hand on top of Mia’s shot a soft, soothing electrical current through her fingertips, momentarily dulling the sadness that coursed through her. She swore she could feel the caress. Somehow, Anna knew everything happening in Mia’slife.
“Anna, Ilost my job! What am I going to do? Ican’t go back to Italy. Ijust don’t belong there anymore.” Uneducated, unemployed, and over-haunted. That was her life now. Mia hastily wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and took another bite of biscotti. There really was something comforting about these ghostly midnight coffee breaks, even if they did drainher.
“Darling, I’ve been trying to tell you. Everything will be fine.” Anna’s voice took on a powerful certainty. “Go look on your television.”
“My television?” That didn’t make any sense.
“No, that’s not right.” Anna’s eyes scrunched up as though searching for a word that didn’t exist in her lexicon. She snapped her plainly manicured fingers together in an aha moment and broke into a smile. “Your pad?”
“My tablet?” A ghost was asking her to get onto her computer in the middle of the night? She made a mental note to clear her search history in the event they tried her for insanity later.
“Sì!Go look on your tablet in your post box.”
“My … email?” The look on Anna’s face told Mia everything she needed to know. Suddenly the ghostly young woman transitioned to someone middle age. Ascolding would comenext.
“Perhaps next week I should bombard you with requests to get your hearing checked? Yes, your email.”
“Okay, okay. What am I looking for?”
“Second chances.” Anna resumed her youthful glow once more and took another sip of her coffee, dunking a cookie into the cup that never seemed to empty. “Sometimes, dear Mia, second chances are so much more fulfilling than if you’d gotten it right in the first place.”
“Well that’s a bit cryptic. You couldn’t have asked me to do this two weeks ago?” Mia took her last sip of coffee, knowing what was coming.
“Would you have listened,ragazza dolce?Sweet girl?” She smiled one last time before giving her last stern order, resuming the formidable face of her motherly form. “Wake up, Mia. Wake up, Mia! You’ll be late to the ball!”
With that final instruction ringing in her ears, Mia surfaced from her dream. Yawning, she made her way to the kitchen, struggling to shake off the last of her irritability. Setting her coffee pot to brew, this time remembering to add the peel of a lime tucked into the coffee grounds, she snagged two biscotti from one of the seven bins scattered across the countertops of her kitchen. Finally, she turned on her laptop.
This whole thing was crazy, even if the biscotti and coffee were delicious. She took her first bite of the crisp biscuit, waiting for the coffee to brew. Anna was right. The cookies needed more vanilla. She scowled and shook a silent fist in the air, knowing her future held another batch of cookies. She’d do it Anna’s way next time. She’d never get the phantom off her back if she ignoredher.
Her tablet screen blinked to life, her inbox already queued, as though she’d left her email up and running before she went to bed, which she most definitely had not. She made a mental note to change her password, though what good that would do, she couldn’tsay.
The first email in her inbox changed everything, practically jumping out at her. She read it again and again. And then one more time. Anna had been right. Mia Starr was going to aball.
A CinderellaBall.
Brand foundhis father at the center of the maze, tending the flowers surrounding the angelic statue that dominated the peaceful oasis. Dom knelt at her feet settling the circle of shooting stars for their winter nap. They were his mother’s favorite flowers—or so he’d beentold.
She’d died due to complications following his birth, so he’d never known her. But he’d heard endless stories of how special she’d been, which made her loss all the more poignant and filled him with a soul-crushing guilt that he’d been the one responsible.
“Morning,Papà. You sent for me?”
Dom rocked back on his heels, peering up from beneath a wide-brimmed straw hat. Golden eyes captured the sunlight and glittered with determination. Uh-oh. This wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. Brand took a swift inventory of his recent misdemeanors, but came up blank. As far as he knew, he’d been on his best behavior.
“I sent for you,sì.”Dom took his time climbing to his feet.“Sederti, sederti.”
Dom waved a gloved hand toward the bench Brand and Carina had shared six long years ago. Alifetime ago. Years filled with bottomless agony, pierced by moments of intense joy. Reluctantly, he sat, the memories of that one special night winding about him like gentle hugs. How could those few brief hours have left such a mark on him? And how could Carina have changed so dramatically over the years?
“What’s wrong,Papà?”
Dom slowly tugged his gloves off and dropped them by a trowel and a burlap sack of straw. “This is not easy, what I have to say.” He released a heavy sigh. “I have decided to terminate your employment at Salvatores and remove you from my will.”
